Always Last Minute

Have you ever wondered what motivates people to not do something till there is barely enough time to finish the task? Procrastination works in marvelous ways. Thanksgiving always cracks me up. Don't get me wrong, it is by far one of the greatest holidays in my opinion, but people just take it a little too seriously.

I went to Safeway the other day to get batteries for the wireless Guitar Hero controller and already the madness of the Thanksgiving shopping had begun. I was not surprised, but was does surprise me, is how long some people wait to get that turkey and can of corn. When I used to work for Safeway there were many things that puzzled me, but one that always stood out was why people never shopped for the things they needed for Thanksgiving in advance? Don't leave me a comment saying that people just forget, or that they have busy lives that keep them from going shopping. If someone has time to put of load laundry in the washing machine, then they have time to shop early.

The week that the Halloween candy disappears from the shelves (which is actually the night of Halloween) they start loading the turkeys into the open freezers. This would be the opportune time to go out and get one, stick it in the freezer and not have to worry about it for a month. Sure, some people don't know how many people are coming for Thanksgiving, but you know... you could call them? Oh wait, we live in a society that is afraid to pick up the phone. (myself included) Also, it is not like you couldn't get a second turkey if you needed it. Everyone these days has one of those stupid "Set it and forget it" things.

What peeves me the most about last minute shoppers is that they always do it two to zero days before Thanksgiving. This causes people to stand in checkout lines that extend all the way down isles to the back of the store sometimes. This only further slows down the process, because people are fighting for positions with their fully-loaded karts while other shoppers are just trying to reach merchandise on the shelves. The isles are barely large enough for two shopping karts let a lone a whole checkout line full of them.

If I could offer some words of advice to you shoppers. Avoid the day time. Just go at three in the morning and get your shopping done if you absolutely need to shop before Thanksgiving. There is no one in the store and the shelves are stocked since the night crew has been hard at work filling the empty spaces that eager shoppers have created in the day. Also if you are going to go, leave your kids at home, there is no point in bringing your rug-rats into the store so they can kick and scream and make you look like a bad parent for not buying them a whole two liter of orange soda. I know, I love it too... I do, I do, I do ooo. Have some respect for the other pissed off shoppers. Chances are they have been sitting in the same crazy-ass line you have also been waiting in. Also treat the employees with respect, if you treat them like crap, I guaren-damn-tee they are not going to want to lift a finger to help you locate the organic stuffing mix. (It is in produce for some reason) Then again, you could avoid all of those things by going at three in the morning.

Even though it sounds like I have disgust for the holiday, Thanksgiving is actually one of my favorites. By the way, the lady at the register forgot to bag my batteries, so I will have to go back, but I will bring my camera and take some pictures. So be safe this holiday break, eat lots of good food, watch some football games and don't yell at your family members. I know I will be holding back the urge to. Happy Thanksgiving.

Procrastination, Safeway, long lines, Thanksgiving, Turkey, Holiday, Shopping, Guitar Hero,

Push It To The Limit

Everyone has experienced the pain of a crappy shopping cart. Many problems may be found with the carts: there are only three wheels, one of the wheels has not been oiled since oil was invented, an infant has pooped in or around the child seat area, someone has struck your cart with a vehicle in the parking lot, and anything else you could imagine being wrong with the carts. There seems to be no shopping cart that is even remotely enjoyable to push.

I believe that the crappy shopping cart adds to the frustration of shopping. Shoppers who settle for the hand baskets know what I am talking about. There is little frustration when it comes to finding and operating a little hand basket. Sure you can't put your forty pack of toilet paper in it, but at least you know that you won't be rupturing the ear drums of fellow shoppers with your squeaky cart, dubbed "Tin Man."

I understand that people who use the hand baskets are only shopping for a few things, but my post is not a way to help you fix your crappy cart, or tell you a way to fit your two weeks of shopping into a hand basket. Instead my post is to tell you that I had a completely, amazingly average cart today and it brightened up my day.

So there my room mates and I were, standing in front of the evil empire's fortress, #316. I don't know about you, but does anyone else always forget a kart until they are inside the store? (And I am going to spell cart, "kart", from now on because of my allegiance to Mario Bros.) I know... I am a nerd. Anyway, it took forever to find a kart.

When we re-entered we were instantly provoked by the candy section set up for Halloween. Halloween is my second least-favorite holiday, for your information. We each got a bag of candy to give out on Halloween to the children in our neighborhood. The only problem with that is, we might not have any candy left by the time trick-or-treaters ring our doorbell on Wednesday.

Sorry about the candy tangent. So my kart was just spectacularly average. I was thrilled. There was nothing obviously wrong with my kart. I glided from aisle to aisle with ease and comfort. Sure I didn't know what type of bacteria was on the hand grips, but I didn't care. I was happier than Tanya Harding with a steel pipe in her hands. I would like to tell you that I found something to rant about on this trip, but I was so overwhelmed by the outstanding, non-squeaking glory of my kart, that the negatives slipped my mind.

Next time you go shopping, donate to whatever cause they are promoting. I donated five dollars to breast cancer research today. I normally would, but I was more likely to give more, probably because my kart was just so exceptionally not disappointing.

Feel Like Rain

Yes, the title of this entry is "feel like rain." Not Feels like rain. Its the third track on Motion City Soundtrack's 2005 album Commit This To Memory. So today after my night class I headed to Safeway to get a new shampoo, shaving cream and soap, because I was running low. As I was looking down the isles to find what I was looking for I remember another thing about Safeway that bothers me.

I am getting ahead of myself. Let me set up the situation. First of all, it's raining and that makes me upset. Don't get me wrong, we need a little rain here because everything is dieing from the heat and I am starting to get annoyed with wearing shorts. So it is raining and that also means that I have to drive slower in order not to spin out around corners and spin the tires coming off of a green light. So when I was headed to Safeway I slowed down and tried to remember the things I needed to get. Now to the main event.

As I entered the store, I was instantly greeted by the extreme amount of Halloween candy. I guess I shouldn't care, but it has been out since September first, and that is a little crazy. It is still at the end of this month, which I can't even think about right now. So I passed up the diabetes isle and made my way to the personal hygiene isle. I found the soap and shampoo and stood in the isle feeling small compared to the gargantuan selection of bars of soap. Then I realized that I hate how being in Safeway makes you forget what you went there to get in the first place. As I searched for the bars of Dial soap I felt overwhelmed by the large variety of soaps. I looked top to bottom and couldn't find it. There is a soap for sensitive skin, dry skin, itchy skin and flaky skin, but there wasn't a damn bar of soap for normal skin.

Once I found the Dial I had to decide which sent I wanted... Is there a reason for more than "soap" scented soap. I mean do I have to smell like something other than soap? Scents are becoming ridiculous these day. I am waiting for Axe to come out with a scent called "Male stripper's g-string." That will be the day I start washing myself with soap bars I steal from hotels. So finding the shampoo was easy because it was right behind me. So I picked it up and headed to the check stand. So I pay for my goods, and head out the door.

I stepped one foot into my house and realized, I had went to Safeway and forgot the one things that I went there for in the first place... Shaving cream. I went into the bathroom and cursed the Safeway distraction gods for making shopping and working there such a living nightmare. Now I am packing for my trip to Arizona and I will have to pick some shaving cream up when I get there. That or rough it for a few days. Anyway, until next time, keep asking for double papered bags. Courtesy clerks love that!

So it begins

Hello everyone,
Yes, today I went on a Safeway. And this marks the true start of my blog's content. But before we get to that, I have something to say. I am glad that I didn't work for Costco, because today we needed some things that would last us more than a week for our house, and that place is so easy to pick apart.

Now to the main course. Today was a fine day to go shopping, the weather sucks, the kids were all still in class and the rent was due, so writing a larger check wasn't such a big deal. When I worked for Safeway, they were in the process of modernizing the look of their stores in an attempt to make them all look the same, much like Target did in order to make stores familiar to all shoppers no matter where they needed to shop. Well Safeway has done this, but has neglected to keep isles in the same order. When i worked it was a routine to know which isle was for what and what items were in that isle, that way when someone needed to know where something you could tell them or take them to the item.

So we were looking for cornbread to make when we have chili. We ended up finding it, but there is a specific section the mixes are usually in. In the store that I worked in the mixes for the corn bread was in the baking isle toward the back next to the powdered puddings. I was looking for the cornbread mix as I was walking along the open refrigerated meat displays when i passed four different isles. I looked back at my room mates with a puzzled look.

We gave up looking for it temporarily and moved onto the cereal selection. After picking up the Honey Nut Cheerios and the Frosted Flakes I realized what my confusion was. In the baking was reversed. Why couldn't they just make all the stores the same? No they just have to make you spend three times as much time you want to spend in the store, trying to remember where things are.

If Safeway's intention was to make all the stores the same to improve customer recognition of the where items are, then why do this. My belief is that Safeway planned this in order to increase the amount of impulse buys. The lines are also longer and have more useless items in them as well fewer of those lines open, but that is another story in itself.

The new store design is dimmer and makes things seem more sophisticated. The new look really doesn't change the fact that their attempt to make all the stores the same has failed anyway. Any two stores you compare will have something different about them. It could be something as simple as moving the location of the spices to isle 20, or something more noticeable as reversing the order of isles from bakery to produce. This post is dragging on, next time I will make sure to get to the point faster next time. But I have to charge the laptop battery and make my way to the Oakland Athletics game.

So until next shop, always take help out to your car. Offer to tip the person who helps. If they accept say you are a secret shopper and that if they take it they will get fired. Watch the expression on their face. They aren't supposed to take it because of a union policy.